The Dragon Lands

"Here Be Dragons"
More true than you might think.
East of Boreal, North of Eural, West of Zephyral, lies the vast, unknowable wastes known as the Dragon Lands. In all its bordering nations, it is whispered that every evil that plagues them comes from the untamed wilds. Within its reaches are numerous goblin hordes, gigantic beasts forgotten by the gods, and of course, the mighty dragons that give the area its name.

Geography

The Dragon Lands are notorious for being unmappable. Dragons can exert a little of their will on their surroundings, and their territory eventually comes to represent them. Thanks to modern technology, astroculi have managed to track the movement of forests, deserts, tundra and even small mountain ranges in stark contradiction to geography. This merely confirmed what many believed for thousands of years, that maps were useless in the Dragon Lands.
For the most part, the Dragon Lands is a cold, arid wasteland. Rain rarely reaches the interior, and only then as a raging tempest summoned by a gargantuan dragon in their battles against each other. Freshwater is rare, as the landscape is never still enough to allow a river to form, let alone a lake, unless a local dragon wills it. Mountain ranges break the landscape, often suddenly without attending hills.
As such, significant landmarks and the surrounding area are identified as part of a dragon's territory. If the dragon is slain, or leaves, normal geography takes over. However, a new dragon may arrive and start exerting their will on the land. This can create beautiful vistas, and those brave enough to venture multiple times into the Dragon Lands are always sure to have a unique experience every time.

Ecosystem

Of course at the centre of the food web are the apex predators of the region, True Dragons. As magical creatures, they escape usual ecological considerations as much as they escape biology. They do not need to eat as much as their size suggests, but their appetite is still voracious. The oldest dragons have set up their own system of tribute from any smaller people living in their territory. Surviving dragons know that over-consumption brings retribution from other dragons or worse, the ire of the more numerous species.
Below true dragons are the various dragon-blooded creatures. These adhere closer to what nature allows, but still have an element of guided design of them. These include feathered griffons, four-limbed wyverns or swamp-dwelling hydras. Going smaller, cockatrices and basilisks fill out other niches of this carnivorous, reptilian clade.
Megafauna extinct elsewhere on Gyre survive by either careful guidance from the dragons that simply like the taste, or by the Divine of Nature knowing that the encroachment of humans was unlikely in this region. This includes thunder lizards and mammals alike.
The Dragon Lands are also home to a mysterious branch of mammals known as marsupials, where the baby is carried in the mother's pouch as opposed to in a uterus. The most prominent examples are the two-legged ganguroo and the vicious drop bear. There are even reports of something that looks like a flying squirrel that lays eggs in the swamps of the world, but no live specimen has been found.

Ecosystem Cycles

Despite the high latitude, the Dragon Lands sees little in the way of seasons. It is either cold or hot, with little in between. The inhabitants deal mostly with the movement of dragons, which can be erratic and subject to whim. Complicated dragon politics can see a patch of forest having to move miles away within a month, as a dragon leaves and another reduces it to desert.
This means every creature has to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. This has become instinctual to some of the creatures, so travellers are advised to be aware of sudden migrations of multiple creatures.

Localized Phenomena

As mentioned, dragons exert some will over their territory, and can learn to channel this consciously as magic if they feel so inclined. When their wrath and pride mix, this can cause permanent damage to the landscape. For as long as humanity has been able to watch from above and afar, they have documented many bizarre phenomena.
The most obvious is the Mother of Storms, a constant dry lightning storm that sits at the centre of the Dragon Lands. Its name is not fanciful either, as storms will appear to calve off the main cyclone like iceburg off an ice sheet, moving across the landscape until it runs out of energy. The source of the Mother of Storms does not appear to be atmospheric either.
It seems to emanate from a volcano at its centre, sending forth pyroclastic clouds as well as a continuous font of lava. In the language of the dragons, it is the First Nest, said to be the birthplace of the progenitor dragons and the final resting place of those few dragons that get too old or injured to continue living. The dragon-blooded believe the last, most powerful dragon will be born there, the Terminarch, a true immortal that will lead them to an empire in the heavens.

Fauna & Flora

Plants in the Dragon Lands tend to be hardy and able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions. Some are even carnivorous, able to feed off of larger animals than their usual counterparts.
Ganguroo take up the majority of primary consumers, from the size of a mouse to larger than an average human. They move about by hopping, where they can get up to great speed. Ganguroo are most notable for the pouches in which they keep their young while gestating. Do not try to use these pouches for locomotion, they are not big enough and are too full of mucus.
Related to ganguroo are the koolah, or drop bears. These bear-looking creatures are also marsupials, but are ambush predators. They wait for prey to walk beneath them, then drop and attack the surprised animal. They are known to be ruthless, sometimes fighting to the death.
Bunyips are also marsupials, but are shaped more like seals and hangout on what little coastal water there is. In fact, there are many pouched versions of common carnivores, such as lions, tigers and wolves.
There is an abundance of birds, but the most significant is the terror bird. Almost all the riding stock in the wider world comes from a flock that was smuggled out of the Dragon Lands centuries ago.
The Dragon Lands are the best place to find members of the Dragon order of animals. The smallest are shoulder dragons, one of the more common familiars and exotic pets. Next are the often-confused cockatrice and basilisk. Cockatrices are on two legs and basilisks have no legs, like a snake. Drakes are also sometimes confused for bailisks, but they are more like flightless wyverns. Wyverns are the closest to true dragons, but they lack the forelimbs, intelligence and elemental abilities of true dragons. Griffins are closely related, having developed feather-like growths like their distant avian relatives.

Natural Resources

Whatever natural resources the Dragon Lands possess, it must be taken from the dragons. If there is wealth to be had, the dragons will know about it before too long. They have little concept of trade either, as they are happy to simply take what they do not possess.
It is likely that there are many untapped resources within the Dragon Lands that we could not even imagine. But unless the dragons go extinct, humans are unlikely to find even the smallest amount, let alone keep it. To say nothing of the wealth stolen by dragons over the centuries. Or the alchemical uses of dragon parts. The blood, scales and bone of a single adult dragon could change the course of a nation's alchemical capabilities.

History

The story of the Dragon Lands truly begins long ago, with the Antesidal Empire. Not far from what is now First Nest was a battlefield between three armies, the General's, the Senate's and the Empress'. The Empress and her followers had foreseen the result of the battle, so completed a ritual that would save their souls. Where the star fell days later cracked the Earth, causing the volcano to erupt, not helping the climate of the world.
Over the geological ages, those souls guided the evolution of the creatures that had survived the cataclysm. They had to do it secretly, subtly, as what they were doing would upset the gods. But the will of the Empress held firm, even as a disembodied spirit.
She had manipulated a small draconic creature, very similar to those later called kobolds, to rudimentary intelligence. It took thousands of years, but she got them to understand and complete a ritual sixty four million years in the casting.
The result was a clutch of eggs, each in a magma chamber of the First Nest. There they lay for many years, much to the confusion of the poor creatures, who no longer heard the voice of their god. But before the last of those who finished the ritual died, a crack appeared in the biggest, smoothest egg. From it hatched a dragon of many colours, each movement scintillating an entire rainbow.
This was the Empress Reborn. With brilliant light, she bade the other eggs to hatch. These had to be cared for by the little creatures, but they were rewarded by the Empress with size, strength and intelligence, becoming the dragon-blooded.
She took to the sky, to survey her new domain. All that she saw is now known as the Dragon Lands. She could have flown higher, gained more for her children, but she challenged the divine to oppose her. And oppose her they did.
The war between dragons and giants is a story for elsewhere, as is the final trick the Empress played before they locked her away in the Vault Below. But the power of dragons did not diminish, and the earliest stories of the elves is the defeat of that first clutch of dragons.
However, the elves never managed to hold the Dragon Lands as they held Boreal. It was a place for renegades to escape to, and where the goblinoids were first devised, and so was the eventual downfall of the elves. Almost every other species have found that none but the dragons can lay claim to the Dragon Lands, but that doesn't stop the hordes of goblin-kin and humans from roaming the land, living a life of relative freedom.
Whether our end comes from the Dragon Lands as it did to the elves remains to be seen.

Tourism

Tourism is not advised. Dragons are not known to be gregarious hosts, and you will be dealing with many dragons if you choose to cross the Lands. There is a reason most choose to take longer, less fractuous routes.
The main pull is for adventurers. There is wealth for the taking out there, even if it is in a dragon's lair. Small kingdoms have flared into life and guttered out, leaving ruins and small enclaves that litter the landscape, so say nothing of the various kinds of nomads.
As mentioned above, maps are unreliable, even astroculi maps, unless they are live to at least a day. Bring a guide and know where you are going is the best advice.

Type

Badlands

Included Organizations

• Daughters of the Storm